"It's my property," insists Tsvangirai, of the $4 m mansion - maths does not add up. By Wilbert Mukori

We all know that Politics is not an exact science with clear cut answers but rather an art with no clear cut answers.

Arithmetic, for an example is an exact science, so 1 + 1 = 2 and will never be anything else.

In Politics, an art, one can argue A = B and be correct and yet because both A and B are not clearly defined and exact variables one can also have A < B, A > B, A ± B, etc., etc. and each one of them considered right!

Morgan Tsvangirai is deliberately trying to politicized the $4 million Highlands mansion he was allocated when he was Prime Minister to confuse everyone.

“How does my house compromise me? This is my house. This is not anybody’s property, it’s my property,” he has argued when the point was raised, not for the first time, that he should vacate the property now that he is no longer PM.

The question of who is the rightful own of the property can easily be settled by answering the question who paid the $4 million price tag on the property. As far as public record goes, the property was paid for using taxpayer’s money; if Tsvangirai disputes that then he should produce the proof that he has repaid the loan.

Tsvangirai was allocated the mansion at the time because he made a big fuss about his own house being unsuitable for someone of his senior position; this is a familiar tale to the people of Zimbabwe.

VP Mphoko and his family were holed up in the five-star hotel for nearly two years, at taxpayers’ expense. Like Tsvangirai, he insisted that all the houses offered to him were not good enough for a man of his high office! It took the determined resolve of people like Sten Zvorwadza to finally flush him out of the luxurious accommodation!

Whilst one can understand the need to provide more secure accommodation for senior public officials, the nation expects the individual concerned to be reasonable in their demands. When the individual leave office they are expected to vacate the allocated accommodation. It is absurd for each ex British PM or USA President to be provided a 10 Downing Street or White House at public expense.

What Tsvangirai and his MDC friends must never forget is that they were elected on a ticket to delivery democratic reforms and end the Zanu PF corruption, oppression and this corrosive culture of entitlement.

The very fact that Tsvangirai and his MDC friends failed to implement even one democratic reform throughout the five years of the GNU does raise the question of their being compromised. Mugabe bribed his Zanu PF cronies and thugs to buy their dogged loyalty and to do his dirty work; bribing MDC leaders would have been second nature to him.

SADC leaders accused Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC leaders of “enjoying themselves whilst in government and forgetting why they were there,” in sheer frustration at MDC’s failure to implement even one democratic reform during the GNU.

“I am not answerable to Saviour Kasukuwere. He doesn’t know anything about this house. He is just trying to make political hot air out of something that he doesn’t know,” argued Tsvangirai.

“He doesn’t know that I have a house which has a contract and I advise him to talk to President Mugabe before he starts uttering something that he doesn’t know.”

If there was any deal made between Tsvangirai and Mugabe then it only proves that he was compromised. Zimbabweans risked life and limb, and over 500 lost their lives in 2008 alone, to elect Tsvangirai to end the rot created by Zanu PF, he has not only joined the rot but he even has the chutzpah to demand we allow him to keep the loot now questions asked!

Morgan Tsvangirai must vacate the $4 million Highlands mansion allocated to him when he was PM, he no longer holds any high public office and therefore must leave. That is as crystal clear as it is mischievous to try to cloud the issue.